As the situation in Italy was reaching a boiling point in 1943 with the fall
of the Fascist government, massive German reinforcements arrived at the peninsula.
The Allies recognized that if they exerted pressure on Germany's grasp on Italy,
the Wehrmacht would be forced to divert troops from the east to the west,
weakening their front against Soviet advances.
Thus, a colossal attack to liberate Italy was launched.
The battle north of Sicily towards Rome was a slow and brutal affair for the Allies,
but it all came crashing down in the mountainous region north of Naples, as the Germans fiercely
tried to hold their Winter Line and fortified their positions on Mount Sammucro and Mount Lungo.
However, if the Allies hoped to advance towards Rome, they would have to cross
the small valley between the mountains and capture the vigorously defended town of San Pietro Infine.
As the American 36th Division endured the grueling winter gusts while preparing
for their incursion through what was known as the Valley of Death,
they could have never imagined what destiny had in store for them…
Liberating Italy
The fact that Benito Mussolini's regime had become a major blunder
instead of an advantage to Germany's war efforts was entirely clear by the spring of 1943.
The Fascist government had not only been a failure in its attempts to capture territory
in Northern Africa, but as 1942 came to a close, internal pressure to topple Mussolini's rule
was widely spread across Italy, and power had been severely fractured within the state.
If it wasn't for the strong German presence in the country, Italy would have surrendered
to the Allies months before, as most regions and factions wanted to make peace with them.
However, Italy was critical in holding the Allies back from an all-out European invasion,
and Hitler was determined to do whatever it took to maintain control of the Italian Peninsula.
At the same time, British and US troops recognized that liberating Italy from Nazi control
would potentially provide another entrance into German territory and weaken their
efforts to contain the advance of Soviet troops on the Eastern Front.
The Allies then began their incursion into Axis-controlled Europe on July 10,
1943, with synchronized landings on the island of Sicily. The demoralized Sicilian troops offered
little resistance to the invading forces until German reinforcements arrived in the North.
The 8th Army came ashore on the southeast part of the island,
while the US 7th Army, under General George S. Patton,
landed on Sicily's south coast. Within three days, 150,000 Allied troops were ashore.
By August 17, Patton's forces arrived in Messina before Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery,
completing the Allied conquest of Sicily and winning the so-called Race to Messina.
The sudden fall of Sicily to the Allies threw officials in Rome into chaos.
Soon, political pressure led to the collapse of Mussolini's government,
and on the morning of July 25, the Duce was forced to resign.
The Winter Line
On July 26, Marshal Pietro Badoglio took control of the Italian government,
and the new administration quickly entered secret negotiations with the Allies.
By October, Allied troops had landed on mainland Italy,
and the Badoglio government quickly surrendered, incurring the fury of the German commanders.
Still, Germany would not give up so quickly and instead dug in,
creating a broad array of defensive barriers that would be known as the Winter Line.
The Germans used the mountainous region to establish a series of practically
impenetrable defensive zones to make the Allied incursion as slow and painful as possible.
This defensive scheme split the country into the German-controlled North and
the Allied-controlled South. The southernmost German barrier spanned from Termoli in the east,
along the Biferno River through the Apennine Mountains to the Volturno River in the west.
As the Allied advance slowed down into a stalemate before the Winter Line,
Allied commanders realized that the only way to reach Rome would be to push through the small
valley between Mount Sammucro and Mount Lungo and capture the small village of San Pietro Infine.
However, the task would be risky and overwhelming, as the Germans had seen the tactical value of San
Pietro, with its broad stone walls and its impressive view of Monte Lungo and Route 6,
and turned it into a great stronghold that would cripple any invading force.
Preparing for Battle
The Germans arrived in San Pietro in September of 1943 and immediately
prepared to withstand the inbound Allied invasion.
What had once been a quiet little village in the Italian countryside
soon became the focal point of a massive war effort. Germany not only fortified the positions
of its troops on the nearby mountains, but it also transformed the village into a fortification.
Moreover, they drafted every civilian male between 15 and 45 and forced them
to dig trenches and carry ammunition to the posts around the city and Mount Sammucro.
The civilians that escaped the village to avoid being enslaved fled to the nearby mountain caves,
where they faced a similarly brutal fate. Food and water were extremely scarce,
and the paralyzing weather soon began to take its toll.
The citizens of San Pietro swiftly succumbed to the cold, hunger, or hard labor,
and the bodies found in the caves were removed and placed in the valley below,
which became known as the Valley of Death.
German troops had deployed a massive defensive apparatus across the entire
territory giving particular importance to Mount Sambúcaro and Mount Lungo,
as they overlooked the valley below and provided a significant tactical advantage,
permitting control over the long stretch of Route 6 where the Allies would advance.
Facing such a fortified position made the effectiveness of any attack considerably limited,
and the initial engagement was slow and gradual. The American Fifth Army
began to attack the Reinhard/Bernhardt Line as early as November 5
and continued the artillery strikes all the way to December.
The Battle
After nearly a month of bombardment and artillery strikes, the American
Fifth Army and the 36th Division began their incursion into the Valley of Death,
but the ravaging cold made the clash much more grueling and tormenting for the fighting soldiers.
The head-on attack on the German positions in and around San Pietro Infine began on December 8,
led by Major General Geoffrey Keyes' II Corps of the Fifth Army.
Meanwhile, the German line was defended by two battalion-sized elements of the
15th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and a battalion of the 71st Infantry Division,
both part of German Tenth Army's XIV Panzer Corps.
After a week of savage attacks and counterattacks by the colliding factions, the US 36th Division's
143rd Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Ranger Battalion, and the 504th Parachute Regimental Combat Team
were able to take control of Mount Sambúcaro and drive the German defenders out of the peak.
Still, neither the cold nor the Germans subsided;
casualties were massive for both armies, but even more so for the Allies,
as they had to fight heavily fortified positions located high on the mountains.
After taking Sambúcaro, the 143rd Infantry, aided by the 504th PRCT, continued to push
west along the shoulders of Sambúcaro to take San Vittore del Lazio. Meanwhile, the 142nd Infantry,
supported by the Italian 1st Motorized Group, was to capture Mount Lungo to the south of Route 6,
successfully attaining control of the two points overlooking the valley.
Placed right in the middle, the 141st Infantry
then planned to invade the town of San Pietro on December 15.
The ground attack by the 36th Division started at 12:00, and the Allies encountered heavy resistance
even as the village had been almost entirely destroyed by artillery strikes at that point.
In a desperate effort to break the German defenses, the Allies were spearheaded by
the 753rd Tank Battalion, attacked with 16 Sherman tanks and tank destroyers. However,
the armored attack was a complete disaster as the numerous mines and anti-tank posts set by
the Germans obliterated the Allied tanks. Only 4 out of the initial 16 tanks survived the attack.
The Allies attempted to take the village four additional times but were constantly
repelled and counterattacked by the relentless Germans.
Finally, the weakened enemy troops decided to retreat from San Pietro after the last encounter.
Aftermath
During the battle and the events that preceded and followed it, the Fifth Army sustained 16,000
casualties. The territorial gains made by the Allies had been slow, painful, and costly.
The Battle of San Pietro resulted in the total destruction of the town by a combination of close
combat, Allied and German mortar and artillery, and the German "scorched earth" policy. Still,
the Italians eventually rebuilt the town close to where it originally stood.
Ultimately, the overall campaign to breach the southernmost part of the German Winter Line
took six weeks of heavy fighting, from early November to late December.
Although successful, it led to severe criticism from the media and the US population,
which considered invading Italy from the south a terrible idea.
However, the battle proved essential in getting the Allies one step closer to Rome
and forcing the Nazis to withdraw from the Italian Peninsula.
The brutal encounter would then be partially shown in a documentary by director John Huston. The film
became the first time that audiences in the US witnessed the horrors of World War 2 on a screen.
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